A Special Occasion
by Hidden Waterbird
Summary: Ironhide is pulled out of recharge to find the Lennox house empty. Surprises ensue.


**Just a quick one shot, fluffy and sweet. Enjoy**

Today was the sixth anniversary of Ironhide becoming part of the Lennox family and little did the weapons specialist know, he was in for a surprise. Ironhide rose from stasis to find a note stuck to the garage door. He rolled outside and transformed then carefully picked up the tiny note. It read, _Morning Hide, Sarah took me to work today and Annabel should still be asleep, its the weekend. Oh and Sarah is wondering if you could get out the old motorcycle in the barn for her thanks. It's for Mikaela so she says. Be back soon. From Will. _

Ironhide frowned wondering why he did not pick up the parents leaving on his scanners this morning. "Must be a system glitch, I call Ratchet in a minute, just going to make sure Annabel is safe." he said murmuring to himself as he walked away from the garage and headed round to Annabel's window. Looking in Ironhide could see a small lump under blankets with Roger her teddy bear poking out the top. Presuming that lump was Annabel Ironhide chuckled to himself remembering when Anna first got Roger at her 3rd birthday party. He tried to scan her just in case she was picking up a cold or any other form of disease but Ironhide was confused to find he could not get his scanners to operate. "Ratchet better know what the slag is wrong with me. First the faulty sensors now my scanners."

Ironhide walked over the the large tree near Annabel's window as he dialed Ratchets number and sat down leaning against it. The tree was old and strong so Ironhide's fear of the tree falling and damaging the Lennox property was quickly extinguished. His thoughts were halted by the sound of Ratchet answering his call.

"Morning Ironhide, bit early for weapons upgrade isn't it?"

Ironhide chuckled at his comrades remark. "No but I need to know why I didn't pick up Sara and Will leaving this morning on my sensors. I was in stasis and woke up to a note saying they'd gone out. Also just now I attempted to scan Annabel but they failed to operate."

It was silent for a minute but Ratchet spoke up again with a reassuring tone. "Don't worry Ironhide it happens to every bot. It's when the processor starts to age causing a few malfunctions every now and then. It's perfectly normal for us senior bots. I'm bringing your sensors back online now."

Ironhide breathed out a sigh of relief but became taught at the words 'senior bot.' He knew he was old but he didn't expect to be malfunctioning because of age anytime soon. Hearing a beep his looked down at his stat screen and was happy to see his sensors and scanners were back online.

"Alright Ironhide, I've temporarily fixed them but you'll need to come to base later on so I can do a proper diagnostic." Ironhide groaned mentally dreading the check ups Ratchet bothered him so regularly to get.

"Alright fine, I'll stop by this afternoon. Thanks for the help. Ironhide Out." The weapons specialist stood up and peering through Annabel's window once again he proceeded with his annual scan. Ironhide read the reading and was shocked to see no heat signature. Reaching in he gently nudged the small bundle under the blankets.

"Annabel? Can you hear me?" He asked repeatedly but gained no answer. A large clang in the distance captured Ironhide's attention and he quickly drew his hand out of the window drawing it into his fighting stance. Looking around Ironhide tried to find the source of the noise and narrowed it down to the barn or the tractor shed behind it. Immediately targeting the source as a threat Ironhide swirled his cannons and strode towards the the barn. If he found any vermin trying to steal the Lennox's possessions, they would pay dearly. In mid step the bot paused thinking about the low heat signature his charge had. "Vermin can wait, Annabel may require medical assistance." Ironhide turned back towards the Lennox house but a explosion got him sprinting towards the barn guns ablaze. "Why you!" He flung open the large doors of the barn which was so big Optimus could fit through the door with room to spare. His optics were shocked not to see burglars or decepticons but Sara. Will, Mikaela, Sam and a few autobots with plastered grins and streamers galore.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" The group yelled as Ironhide stood there, dumbstruck and unsure on how to react.

"Happy birthday big guy" Will said stepping up with a party hat on his head and Annabel on his shoulders chanting the celebration phrase over and over. Ironhide knelt down and Annabel hopped off Will's shoulders and into Ironhide's hand.

"Annabel are you alright? I scanned you while you were asleep and you body temperature was extremely low." Annabel giggled while holding onto her slipping party hat.

"No silly I was in the barn with dad and mummy helped me hide pillows and roger under my blanket so you thought I was still asleep. We got you!" Ironhide chuckled quietly and after a quick hug placed her back on the ground again.

"You sure did youngling, all of you. I have a question though, what is a birthday?" The room broke out in laughs and Will spoke up.

"A birthday Ironhide, is a day when a person celebrates their day of birth. 6 years ago today you joined our family and Annabel thought that we should celebrate that by throwing you a birthday party. You've done so much for us and well we haven't been able to show you lately how grateful we are for everything." Ironhide nodded, honored to be considered a family member and have people celebrate that.

"Lets go eat cake!" Someone shouted out, the room mumbling in agreement while they headed outside to the field where a few picnic blankets were laid out. The humans settled down on them while the Autobots simply sat down on the field cautious of their surroundings. Ironhide was talking to Optimus when he spotted Sara walk out with a large cake with a big black truck on it and a 6. Annabel squealed in glee and bounded over to Ironhide.

"See your the same age as me!" The group laughed and after blowing out the candles with help from Anna the cake was served and although Ironhide didn't actually eat any, he simply enjoyed being in the presence of his family and comrades. After a while the group quietened down with a few people leaving. Soon the autobots left after a large thanks to the Lennox family for a great time. Now it was just Ironhide, Bumblebee the Lennox's Mikaela and Sam. Sam stood up from laying on the grass next to Annabel, they were playing spot the cloud.

"Alright I think it's time me and Kayla headed home. It's getting late and I don't want to miss curfew, again." Will and Sam shook hands goodbye and Sara ferociously hugged Mikaela as she did to all her human guests who had left.

"You kids be good now okay? Oh and Sam say hi to your mother for me!" Sam climbed into Bumblebee followed by Mikaela.

"Will do Sara, thanks for everything. Happy birthday Hide!" The camaro sped off down the driveway and out onto the main road. Sara and Will sighed happily and laid down next to Annabel who was still drawing the clouds. Will rolled onto his side facing the two girls.

"That was a great party good job everybody. Bel, it was very nice of you to give Ironhide a birthday, I think he enjoyed it." Annabel sat up eyes gleaming.

"I think so too! It was lots of fun can we do it again next year?"

The parents laughed at their daughters eagerness and kind considerate passion. Sara sat up and drew Annabel into a hug. "Of course sweetie, I'm sure Ironhide would love that. Why don't you go ask him?"

The trio stood up and walked over to Ironhide who was sitting against Annabel's tree again gazing upwards. "Ironhide!" He looked down to see Annabel, Will and Sara all together smiling at him. Annabel climbed up onto his foot. "Can we throw you another birthday next year? This one was lots of fun and the cake was really yummy and it was fun surprising you!" Ironhide beamed inside, amazed of how generous and kind this child was to people even if they were from another planet.

"That would be lovely Annabel, thankyou for this celebration I have enjoyed it." The child squealed in happiness and bounded off towards the house he mother in tow already chatting about what they should do for Ironhide's birthday next year. Ironhide felt a tap on his foot and saw Will smiling and holding up a colorfully wrapped present.

"Me and Sara thought long and hard for what to get you and eventually we found this. He placed the gift in Ironhide's servo and the mech stared at it intently.

"What is it?" Ironhide asked.

Will chuckled. "Open it and you'll find out." Ironhide using a small blade cut the paper off the gift and gazed at the furry, square object's linked by string in his hand.

"What is it?" He asked holding it by the string and out at arms length. Will was laughing heartedly now and leaned on Ironhide to catch his breath.

" A healthy joke. They're called fuzzy dice. They hang on your mirror, a very popular accessory. But that wasn't your present, this is." Will held up another gift but this one was wrapped very simply, unlike the fuzzy dice. Ironhide reached down and took the other gift graciously sensing it was fragile. He pieced off the paper and looked at the gift, his spark aching a little. It was a small framed picture of all the Lennox's sitting together on the patio grinning. Ironhide quickly scooped up Will and held him to his chest. Will realised he was attempting a hug and gladly returned it.

"Thankyou Will." Ironhide said, breaking out the embrace. "This is a special gift, I will keep it safe." Will shrugged and rubbed the back of his head, smiling at the bot's intense gratitude.

"No worries bud. Ok, enough of the mushy stuff, lets head back to the house. Who knows what the ladies are up to."

The pair chuckled and Ironhide set Will on the ground prompting him to begin walking back. "I will join you soon, I just need to do something." Will merely nodded and began the walk back to the house. Meanwhile Ironhide turned and treaded off down the the larger hills. He reached the top of the hill and sat down on the grass watching the sunset. He knew that the other bots would call him sissy or girly to be doing something like this but he did it anyway. "Thankyou Primus." He whispered, his metallic voice carried away by the wind.

"Thankyou."


End file.
